Australia oil and gas player Santos rejects PE takeover bid

Scepter had bid A$6.88 ($4.99) per share for all shares in Santos, to be paid in cash, a 30% premium to the A$5.29 closing price on October 20, when the bid was submitted. In a release, Santos called the offer "opportunistic" and said it did not reflect the underlying value of the company's assets.

The company also cited the conditions attached to the proposal as justification for rejecting it. Though Santos did not specify what those were, it did say that the conditions would interfere with other options that the company is exploring as part of its strategic review launched in August.

The management team at Santos has come under scrutiny recently due to difficulties with the many investments it made in anticipation of continued increasing demand for energy from Asian customers. One major project, the Gladstone liquid natural gas terminal in Queensland, has been under development since 2007 and finally shipped its first cargo this month.

In its most recent annual report, the company recorded revenue of A$4 billion, an increase from A$3.6 billion the year before. Over the same period the firm went from a net profit of A$516 million to a net loss of A$935 million.

Scepter Partners is managed by former members of The Blackstone Group. In addition to Bermuda, it has offices in New York, London, Hong Kong and Beijing. The firm seeks to acquire large cap strategic assets with a focus on natural resources, infrastructure, real estate, media and telecom.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Infrastructure
• Buyouts
• Buyout
• Australia
• Infrastructure
• energy
• buyout
• Commodities